Eastern Peninsular Surfing

About Eastern Peninsular

Malaysia is made up of Peninsular Malaysia and East Malaysia located on the northern part of Borneo island, which the Indonesians now call Kalimantan. Peninsular Malaysia abuts the South China Sea on the east and fringes the Straits of Malacca on the west coast. The east coast comprises of mainly sandy beaches (91%) exposed to South China swells from the N and E. These exposed beachbreaks seemingly work best in the early monsoon season, when the sand bars have built up during flat summers. The weirdest fact about Malaysian locals is that most of them have learned to surf at Sunway Lagoon, a wave pool in a major water-park west of Kuala Lumpur. In 1997, when it was first built, the wave pool could produce 3ft (1m) waves surrounded by a look-alike Raiders of the Lost Ark movie set backdrop! Sunway Lagoon can be found in Petalin Jaya, between the airport and KL. No personal or fibreglass boards are allowed, you can only ride softboards and it only opens on the weekend, when they alternate 1h for bodyboards and 1h for surfboards. It costs $8 for entry plus $7 for board rental. Quiksilver organizes an international contest on December 31st and in 2003, Indonesians won the event boosting airs and tail slides and the pool got pretty popular after many pros did jet ski tow-ins.